Jony Ive: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Jony Ive is the man behind the design of Apple‘s beautiful products. Here’s what you need to know about Ive, the iPhone 6, and Ive’s hints about the new materials he’ll be using to design Apple’s future products.

1. Jony Ive Is the SVP of Design at Apple

Check out Jony Ive’s touching tribute to Steve Jobs in the video above.

According to his profile page on Apple’s website, Ive was named Designer of the Year by the Design Museum London, and awarded the title Royal Designer for Industry by The Royal Society of Arts. He has been a design leader at Apple since 1996, and products that he helped to design are featured in permanent collections of museums worldwide, including MoMA in New York and the Pompidou in Paris.

2. Jony Ive Has Been Knighted

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Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge meets with Sir Jonathan Ive at the UK’s Creative Industries Reception at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Ive was knighted in 2012, when he was 45. According to the BBC, Ive had a brief chat with Princess Anne after his investiture. During their conversation, Princess Anne revealed that she loves using her iPad. Prior to being knighted, Ive was instated as a Commander of Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2005.

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3. Jony Ive Will Be Using ‘New Materials’ For Apple Products

Check out the video above to see Ive talk about the design process of the MacBook.

Earlier this year, MacRumors quoted Ive about his use of “new materials” in Apple’s future product line. While it’s not clear whether he was talking about the iPhone 6 or some other product, Ive’s hints about new products and new materials is quite tantalizing. Here’s Ive’s exact quote:

“I’ve worked for the last 15 or 20 years on the most challenging, creative parts of what we do. I would love to talk about future stuff — they’re materials we haven’t worked in before. I’ve been working on this stuff for a few years now. Tim [Cook] is fundamentally involved in pushing into these new areas and into these materials.”

MacRumors speculates that some of these “new materials” might include sapphire crystal, “Liquidmetal alloys,” and graphene.

4. Jony Ive Designed a Glass iPhone

In the video above, one YouTuber tries his hardest to put a scratch in the iPhone 6’s sapphire crystal display.

An all-glass iPhone might sound like a bad idea for people with butterfingers, but Ive recently scored a patent for a method of making Apple devices out of glass. TechRadar explains:

“Apple’s latest idea is to build all-glass iPhones, iPads and iMacs. Cupertino has just been awarded a patent for a manufacturing method that can fuse glass structures together while containing all the internal circuitry.

Importantly, the proposed design will be durable (no more cracks, hopefully) and lightweight – as well as being obviously nicer to look at…

Jonathan Ive is listed as one of the inventors of the technology, and with sapphire glass (probably) tough enough for the challenge, there’s a very real chance that Apple might see a promising future in glass.”

5. Jony Ive Gave Kobe Bryant Career Advice

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Apple Insider reports that Kobe Bryant reached out to Jony Ive for some advice on how to navigate the business world once he retires from basketball:

“‘I went up to Apple, spent the day there talking with Jony and just kind of picking his brain about products and things like that,’ the L.A. Lakers shooting guard said. ‘What makes them who they are and why. Very, very curious about that and understanding that.'”

Apparently, Ive asked Kobe some questions about basketball during their talks. Don’t expect Ive to start a second career in sports anytime soon, though.